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Saturday, October 5, 2013

Review of "Sons of Westwood"

Between catching up after vacation and writing a poem a day for the October poetry challenge (shameless plug: you can read them and follow all month long at http://ljssportspoems.blogspot.com/ ) I neglected some of my book reviews. To get back on track, here is the review of an advance copy I recieved from NetGalley of "Sons of Westwood" - a little different book on John Wooden and UCLA basketball.

Title/Author:

“The Sons
of Westwood: John Wooden, UCLA, and the Dynasty That Changed College
Basketball” by John Matthew Smith

Genre:

Basketball,
College, history, politics, society

Published:

September
30, 2013

Length:

344 pages

Rating:

4 of 5 stars
(very good)

Review:

John
Wooden is considered by many to be the greatest college basketball coach in the
history of the game. His run of 10 national championships in 12 years at UCLA
is a feat that may never be achieved again. He has had his Pyramid of Success
reprinted for not only coaches in sports but many business people use this
model to help their businesses succeed. He achieved this during the turbulent
social times of the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Many of his players considered him to be like a father to them.

So one
would figure that this book would be another glowing recap of Wooden’s life and
career, right? Well, it does look
favorably on some aspects of those topics.
However, John Matthew Smith’s book also digs deeper into the man’s
thoughts and beliefs through quotes, interviews with former players and
assistant coaches and research. This is
not to say that Smith shatters all of Wooden’s legacy with embarrassing truths
or that he is trying to diminish Wooden’s accomplishments.

What Smith does address is the aura of “integration” and “racial tolerance”
that was part of the UCLA and Wooden image during the 1960’s. Smith refers many times to the fact that UCLA
was used as the model institution to show the racial integration taking place
in Southern California when the reality was that it wasn’t any different than
other parts of the nation when it came to civil rights and the mounting
tension.

Wooden is part of this discussion as well when some of his lesser known
thoughts about civil rights and what young men he is coaching should and
shouldn’t be doing with themselves while playing basketball and studying while
at UCLA. It bears repeating that the
author is not writing this in any judgmental way, nor is he trying to tarnish
the image of either UCLA or Wooden. He
is simply shedding new light during this time.

The book
helped me learn a lot of new information about not only the UCLA basketball
dynasty but also more about the civil rights movement and some pockets of
unrest that one may not know about. I
enjoyed reading this book and would encourage anyone who enjoys basketball or
reading about the civil rights movement to pick this up.

Did I skim?

No

Pace of the book:

Excellent
– the narrative never was bogged down with unimportant information or
overloaded the reader.

Do I recommend?

Yes. For college basketball fans, readers who are
interested in the social changes of the 1960’s or those who like books that
tackle controversial topics will enjoy this book.